Generative AI fuels growth of online deepfakes threatening organizations and election integrity

The growth of deepfakes in the past few years is a threat to not only organizations but also the U.S. general election in November.

Information security vendor Pindrop saw a sharp rise in deepfakes in the first few months of the year compared to the previous year.

Deepfakes of Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Donald Trump, President Joe Biden and state-level candidates have circulated in the runup to the November U.S. general election.

"Last year, we were seeing about one deepfake every single month," Vijay Balasubramaniyan, co-founder and CEO at Pindrop, said on the Targeting AI podcast. "Starting this year ... we started seeing a deepfake every single day across every single customer."

A big reason for the stark increase is the growth of generative AI systems and voice cloning apps. Meanwhile, many people can't distinguish between a deepfake voice and an authentic one.

While about 120 voice cloning apps were on the market last year, this year users (both legitimate and illegitimate) can choose among more than 350 voice cloning apps.

Moreover, Balasubramaniyan said, fraudsters are using generative AI technology to scale their attacks.

For example, generative AI systems can create deepfakes in many different languages -- a series of large language models from Meta can translate some 4,000 languages. Fraudsters can use these systems to create deepfakes that can respond to questions depending on which words are spoken.

"They have managed to scale their attacks in massive ways, and in ways that we have not seen before generative AI. We're seeing that now," Balasubramaniyan said.

The massive progression of deepfake technology means organizations must remain aware and vigilant, said Harman Kaur, vice president of AI at Tanium, on the podcast. Tanium is a cybersecurity and management vendor based in Kirkland, Wash.

"You have to have a plan to respond," Kaur said. "Do you have the tools to understand what type of threat has been invited into your network, and do you have the tools to fix it?"

Esther Ajao is a TechTarget Editorial news writer and podcast host covering artificial intelligence software and systems. Shaun Sutner is senior news director for TechTarget Editorial's information management team, driving coverage of artificial intelligence, analytics and data management technologies. Together, they host the Targeting AI podcast series.